Best Known As: The singer of the hit "You Oughta Know"
Alanis Morissette's 1991 album Alanis, a collection of danceable pop ditties, was a big hit in Canada and won Morissette a Juno music award while she was still a teenager. In the mid-1990s, Alanis Morissette reinvented herself as a mournful rock goddess, and her 1995 album Jagged Little Pill sold millions, won four Grammy awards and rocketed her to fame on MTV and around the world. The album included the hit singles "You Oughta Know," "Ironic" and "Hand in My Pocket." Since then she's recorded albums and toured internationally, occasionally charting on adult contemporary hit lists. Her other albums include Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998, with the single "Thank You"), Under Rug Swept (2002, with "Hands Clean"), So-Called Chaos (2004, with "Everything") and Flavors of Entanglement (2008). Alanis Morissette released a greatest hits album and an acoustic version of Jagged Little Pill in 2005.
Alanis Morissette married Mario Treadway on 22 May 2010. Mario Treadway is a rapper who goes by the stage name of Souleye. Their son, Ever Imre Morissette-Treadway, was born on Christmas Day 2010... Alanis Morissette played the role of God in the 1999 Kevin Smith movie Dogma... Before her singing career took off, Morissette had a role on the kids' TV show You Can't Do That on Television... From 2004-06 she dated actor Ryan Reynolds.
Pop vocal artist and composer Alanis Morissette gained fame when she signed with Madonna's Maverick Records and released Jagged Little Pill in 1995. However, her first experience with show business came long before her singing career. Born on June 1, 1974, in Ottawa, Canada, she appeared on the TV series You Can't Do That on Television! in the mid-'80s. Her musical skills had been honed since she began playing the piano at the age of six, and thus she began recording by the time she was ten. After spending time making an album in Toronto, she relocated to Hollywood, where she began working under Maverick and released Jagged Little Pill.
In 1998, she supplied the track "Uninvited" for the City of Angels soundtrack, and subsequently released another album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. Inspired and refreshed by a trip to India, the album proved reflective of the artist's deeper self, and she directed her own music videos for the songs "Unsent," "Joining You," and "So Pure," off of that album.
In 2000, Morissette made her big-screen debut in the role of roles -- playing God -- in Dogma. While the part was somewhat less than wordy, her charismatic persona provided a memorable and unexpected interpretation of the divinity, and earned her much attention in the movie business. She, and her prominent long locks, would return to the role for the sequel Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back in 2001. ~ Sarah Sloboda, Rovi
Born Alanis Nadine Morissette on June 1, 1974, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; daughter of Alan (a high school principal) and Georgia (a teacher) Morissette.
Worked as a child actor, mid-1980s; released first single, "Fate Stay with Me," on Lamor Records, 1987; signed with MCA Canada; released first full-length LP, Alanis, 1991; signed with Maverick Records, 1994; released Jagged Little Pill, 1995; released Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, 1998; acted in film Dogma, 1999; released Under Rug Swept, 2002; released So-Called Chaos, 2004; released Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, 2005; released Alanis Morissette: The Collection, 2005; released Flavors of Entanglement, 2008.
Awards: Juno Awards, Most Promising Female Artist for Alanis, 1992; Grammy Awards, Album of the Year, Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song, and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "You Oughta Know," all from Jagged Little Pill, 1996; Best Long Form Music Video for Jagged Little Pill, 1997; Grammy Award, Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song for "Uninvited," 1998; Juno Award, Best Album for Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, 2000.
Addresses:Record company—Maverick Recording Company, 9348 Civic Center Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210; 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019. Web site—Alanis Morissette Official Web site: http://www.alanis.com.
Singer, songwriter
Alanis Morissette's 1995 release Jagged Little Pill sold more than 25 million copies around the world and won her four Grammy Awards. Its slew of hit singles, kicked off with the vituperative "You Oughta Know," made Morissette an alternative music star overnight. Yet the singer-songwriter also endured some flak for her success, especially after word leaked out that she had suffered a rather unsuccessful earlier incarnation as a big-haired, drum-machine-backed teen singer in Canada. Nevertheless, the candid songs of Jagged Little Pill, penned by Morissette as she matured out of her teens, spoke to a broad cross-section of adolescents and adults alike. Morissette's subsequent albums, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Under Rug Swept, while successful albums themselves, failed to live up to the precedent set by the astonishing sales figures of Jagged Little Pill.
Morissette was born on June 1, 1974, in Ottawa, Ontario, one of a set of twins born to Alan and Georgia Morissette. Alanis and her twin Wade joined older brother Chad, and for a time the family lived in Europe when the elder Morissettes, both teachers, took jobs at a military base school. As a young teen in Ottawa again, Morissette attended Catholic schools and was a straight-A student. A self-described overachiever, she began piano at age of six and wrote her first song at age nine, and her talents eventually landed her on television. Her biggest success came with a recurring role on You Can't Do That on Television, a kids' show on the Nickelodeon cable channel in the mid-1980s.
With the earnings from the television show, Morissette produced her first single on her own label, Lamor Records. The 1987 release, "Fate Stay with Me," was recorded with the musical expertise from former members of the Stampeders, Canadian rockers who had a 1971 hit with "Sweet City Woman." As a single written by a 13-year-old, "Fate Stay with Me" was no monster hit but did attract the attention of MCA Canada, who signed Morissette. Her first full-length record, Alanis, debuted in 1991, followed by Now Is the Time a year later.
It was not yet Morissette's time at all. Her career enjoyed some minor successes, but she remained pigeonholed; MCA even had her touring with the always-maligned Vanilla Ice. She did get a chance to hone her songwriting skills over two albums, however, and later, after her major success with Jagged Little Pill, refused to be embarrassed by a persona whom unkind journalists compared with 1980s pop stars Debbie Gibson or Tiffany. "I wasn't writing to communicate anything, and I was definitely not ready on the self-esteem level to indulge myself and all my personal turmoil," she told J. D. Considine of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Jagged Little Pill would bare some of the personal dramas that engulfed Morissette in typical coming-of- age passages, but she has spoken about certain moments in her late teens as definite turning points. In one incident, she had a breakdown in front of her parents, partly as a result of the pressures she felt as a combination teen star/overachiever/perfect daughter. Discovering the 1991 Tori Amos LP Little Earthquakes helped inspire Morissette to begin writing from the heart. Coincidentally, Amos had also suffered an off-target launch as an alterna-pop performer under the moniker Y Kant Tori Read, and later succeeded by writing straightforward, deeply personal songs.
Morissette came to see the necessity of leaving Canada for the more inspiring climes of Los Angeles. Like Axl Rose stepping off the bus in the video for "Welcome to the Jungle," she underwent the usual big-city trials during her first weeks. She was held up at gunpoint. She was broke. She tried to find someone to work with, but no one seemed to click. Finally she approached Glen Ballard, an unlikely hero. Ballard was a producer with a home studio who had crafted tunes for Wilson Phillips and Paula Abdul. But he didn't try to mold her into something salable: "I felt that he wasn't judging me, and I felt that he had enough security within himself to give the ball to a 20-year-old and let her go with it," she told Considine. Within a period of two weeks, they recorded most of what would become Jagged Little Pill, and shopped their demo tape around. Executives at Maverick Records heard it and signed Morissette in 1994. Their ultimate boss, however, was none other than Madonna, who became CEO of the subsidiary as part of her lavish contract with Warner Bros. Morissette was just 20 years old.
Unimaginable Success Jagged Little Pill, released in the spring of 1995, displayed a drastic change from Morissette's former recording efforts. "The sound is more muscular; her voice is rawer, the guitar work more aggressive," wrote Christopher John Farley in Time, "and while the words are rarely as smart as they seem to think they are, this is straight-ahead rock, sweetened somewhat with pop melodiousness." Its initial single, "You Oughta Know," was a catchy diatribe against a former lover. Later, rumors surfaced that Morissette may have been writing about someone specific she had dated, such as television comic Dave Coulier, but the singer has said that it was merely a composite of several doomed relationships.
Success made Morissette an easy target for criticism, however, once her new American fans—who had never heard of her—discovered her previous incarnation via snipey rock critics. There were rumors that Maverick was surreptitiously buying up all unsold copies of the early-1990s releases, and worse, that Ballard had done much of the work for Jagged Little Pill. Yet Morissette refused to evade her former teenybopper persona, and debunked the tales of Maverick's attempts to hide it. Instead, she told Jon Beam of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune that her early brush with fame helped her keep a level head when the real fame came knocking. Her experiences, she asserted, "made me not become a heroin addict and become completely overwhelmed with how crazy this life is that I'm leading right now."
Morissette's newly out-of-control life included extensive touring in support of Jagged Little Pill throughout much of 1995 and 1996. In early 1996 the record won four Grammy Awards, including album of the year, and Jagged Little Pill would eventually sell more than 25 million copies worldwide. Not surprisingly, given the fervor of her fan base, Morissette has described singing onstage as similar to a religious experience: "When I'm onstage, it's very spiritual. I feel very close to God when I'm up there," she told Rolling Stone's David Wild. Another journalist likened Morissette's stage show to "kind of like waiting for someone to have a breakdown," wrote Jae-Ha Kim in the Chicago Sun-Times. "Flailing her arms and moving about in a pigeon-toed stance, she appears most comfortable when her face is covered by her mane of hair."
Took Personal Time Off Still, fame did have its pressures. She began avoiding interviews with members of the Canadian media, granting access only to American journalists. Fans eagerly awaited a follow-up to Jagged Little Pill, but, after finishing a heavy year of touring in 1996, Morissette stayed close to home, and eschewed all interviews and appearances. She took a break from her newfound fame and traveled the world, including visits India and Cuba, where she did some major soul-searching. She told Billboard's Timothy White, "I made up for a lot of lost time … time lost because I had always been so focused on my music." She also participated in several triathlons held near Los Angeles. She used this time to focus on pursuing other, non-music related goals. "I love doing things that scare me," she told Beam in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune interview. "It makes me feel alive and challenged. It makes me feel like I'm growing. That comfort-zone area, I hate it."
After her travels, Morissette questioned whether or not she wanted to return to the music industry, nearly deciding to give it up. It was a conversation with a friend that made her realize she could give it up any time she wanted, and this realization made her continue writing songs. In order to remove the pressure she felt, Alanis told White in Billboard, "I [had] to be willing to let go completely of ever doing this again." After that breakthrough, she immediately began writing songs for her next album. She had success with a single released prior to her next album, "Uninvited," featured on the City of Angels soundtrack. She won two Grammys for the song, which Entertainment Weekly called "the musical equivalent of a castle door creaking open," praising the album for its use of "simple, chilly piano notes and Morissette's recognizably wracked soprano."
Morissette's travels and spiritual searching heavily influenced the content of her next album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, released in 1998. The Houston Chronicle hailed the album as "an introspective, spiritual masterpiece … virtually ignored by a young audience not ready to look inward." The album, although universally praised by critics, did not sell nearly as well as Jagged Little Pill, although it did reach the triple platinum mark. The songs on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie were a departure from the rage and anger that Morissette became known for on Jagged Little Pill. She questioned her Catholic upbringing in "Baba," thanked India for her newfound perspective and recognized her own divinity in "Thank U," and even revisited her path to teenage teenybopper fame in "UR."
Returned to Acting Alanis returned to acting in 1999, playing the role of God in Kevin Smith's film Dogma. Smith, when asked by Entertainment Weekly why he chose Morissette for the role, had a quick answer: "Typecasting. Alanis, she's the closest thing to the divine here on earth." Morissette, who, like director Kevin Smith, was raised Catholic, said her upbringing made her appreciate the satire even more. "I doubt I would have thought the movie was as funny as I did. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that I've been questioning my own Catholicism since as far back as I can remember." She reprised her role with a cameo in Smith's 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
In the spring of 2002, Morissette released her third album, Under Rug Swept, for Maverick. Although still extremely popular, she had her share of detractors by this time, perhaps due to her early teenage pop career. Canadian Musician writer Jim Kelley recognized that "Morissette drew many doubters who questioned her credibility, alleging that her co-writer and producer Glen Ballard was the real, creative force behind her success." Morissette proved that she was indeed the force behind the success by writing, producing, and arranging her next album by herself. Morissette described her experience of producing her album as "baptism by fire" in Newsweek. Still, it was a challenge she enjoyed. "I'm always in over my head. As soon as I'm not, I go somewhere else."
Under Rug Swept went platinum within a week, but was not as critically praised as Morissette's previous albums. A Time magazine writer voiced the complaint that many critics had: "How many different ways can Morissette find to voice the same trite complaint?" The material on Under Rug Swept struck a balance between her first two albums, incorporating elements of spirituality, self-confession, and anger in its lyrics. MTV.com's Jennifer Vineyard wrote, "Under Rug Swept dusts off the same topics [as Jagged Little Pill]—love, sex, cruelty—with the added vantage of years spent growing up." Morissette's growing maturity showed on each successive album. She also added the title of producer to her array of other titles—writer, singer, and actress, among others. At that point, she had no plans to stop soon, telling Vineyard, "I feel like I want to write a whole other album right now."
In 2004, Morissette hosted the Juno Awards in Canada, dressed in a bathrobe. Protesting recent incidents of censorship, she removed the robe during the ceremony to reveal a flesh-colored body suit. In May of 2004, Morissette released So-Called Chaos, which she co-produced with Tim Thorney and John Shanks. The album reached number five on the Billboard 200, and the single "Everything" rose to number four on the Top 40. Although a number of critics had reservations about So-Called Chaos, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted in All Music Guide that the album was, "her most satisfying since her blockbuster breakthrough." In the summer of 2004, Morissette toured the United States with the Canadian rock group Barenaked Ladies. In June of 2005 she celebrated the tenth anniversary of Jagged Little Pill with Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, an album that revisited the earlier material from a more mature point of view. For the first six weeks, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic was marketed exclusively by Starbucks' Hear Music.
At the end of 2005 Maverick released Alanis Morissette: The Collection, which offered both an overview of the singer's career along with new songs. A cover of Seal's "Crazy" was issued as a single and reached the Billboard Top 40, the European Top 100 Singles, and the Pop 100. Morissette also received a nomination for a Golden Globe for best original song for "Wunderkind," which appeared on the soundtrack for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In 2007, on April Fools Day, Morissette released a widely circulated music-video parody of the Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps," later explaining that she had recorded the material as a way of letting off steam during the recording sessions for her new album. In the spring of 2008 Morissette issued Flavors of Entanglement, her seventh studio album. Because the album followed a well-publicized break up with actor, Ryan Reynolds, it was easy for critics to draw a connection between the material and her personal life. Erlewine wrote that Flavors of Entanglement was, "[…] a classic breakup record." Despite criticism and personal challenges, Morissette seems determined to forge a career on her own terms.
Selected discography "Fate Stay with Me," Lamor, 1987. Alanis, MCA Canada, 1991. Now Is the Time, MCA Canada, 1992. Jagged Little Pill, Maverick, 1995. Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, Maverick, 1998. Alanis Unplugged (live), Maverick, 1999. Under Rug Swept, Maverick, 2002. So-Called Chaos, Maverick, 2004. Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, Maverick, 2005. Alanis Morissette: The Collection, Maverick, 2005. Flavors of Entanglement, Maverick, 2008.
Sources Periodicals Billboard, May 13, 1995; March 9, 1996; October 3, 1998; February 12, 2000. Canadian Musician, March 2002. Chicago Sun-Times, March 1, 1996; March 4, 1996. Detroit News, March 1, 2002. Entertainment Weekly, April 3, 1998; November 6, 1998. Hollywood Reporter, May 6, 2002. Houston Chronicle, March 27, 2002. Interview, November 1999. Maclean's, November 23, 1998. Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, March 11, 1996. Newsweek, March 4, 2002. People, December 30, 1996. Rolling Stone, November 2, 1995. San Diego Union-Tribune, March 6, 1996. Time, February 26, 1996.
Alanis Morissette was one of the most unlikely stars of the mid-'90s. A former child actress turned dance-pop diva, Morissette later transformed herself into a confessional alternative singer/songwriter in the vein of Liz Phair and Tori Amos. However, she bolstered that formula with enough pop sensibility, slight hip-hop flourishes, and marketing savvy to become a superstar with her third album, Jagged Little Pill.
Morissette was born in Ottawa, Canada, and began playing piano and writing songs during her childhood years. She also joined the cast of You Can't Do That on Television, a children's television program. Using money that she earned on the show, Morissette recorded an independent single, "Fate Stay with Me," which was released when she was only ten years old. Morissette then concentrated on a musical career after leaving the show's cast, signing a music publishing contract when she was 14. The publishing contract led to a record deal with MCA Canada, and Morissette moved to Toronto before releasing her debut album, Alanis, in 1991.
Alanis was a collection of pop-oriented dance numbers and ballads that found success in Canada, selling over 100,000 copies and earning the singer a Juno Award for Most Promising Female Artist. However, no other country paid much attention to the record. In 1992, Morissette released Now Is the Time, an album that closely resembled her debut. Like its predecessor, it was a success in Canada, even if its sales did not match those of Alanis. Following the release of Now Is the Time, Morissette relocated to Los Angeles, where she met veteran producer Glen Ballard in early 1994. Ballard had previously written Michael Jackson's hit single "Man in the Mirror," produced Wilson Phillips' hit debut album, and worked with actor/musician David Hasselhoff. The two decided to work together, and despite their shared experience with mainstream pop, they opted instead to pursue an edgier, alternative rock-oriented direction. The result was Jagged Little Pill, which was released in 1995 on Madonna's label, Maverick Records.
On the strength of the angst-ridden single "You Oughta Know," Jagged Little Pill gained attention upon its release in the summer of 1995. The song soon received heavy airplay from alternative radio outlets and MTV, sending the album into the Top Ten and helping it achieve multi-platinum status. Jagged Little Pill's subsequent singles -- "Hand in My Pocket," "All I Really Want," "You Learn," "Ironic," and "All I Really Want" -- kept the album in the Top Ten for an astounding 69 weeks, and Alanis Morissette was nominated for six Grammys in early 1996. She won several of those awards, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year.
While she never managed to replicate the success of Jagged Little Pill, Morissette continued to release well-received albums into the 21st century. Her much-anticipated follow-up, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in the autumn of 1998, setting a record for the highest first-week sales by a female artist. An Unplugged set appeared a year later and featured a cover of the Police's "King of Pain," while 2002's Under Rug Swept saw Morissette writing and producing without the help of collaborators. So-Called Chaos followed in 2004. A year later, she took Jagged Little Pill on the road as an acoustic tour. Those tour dates led to the release of Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, an album originally (and tellingly) sold exclusively through Starbucks outlets. Morissette and her fans had grown up, and Collection -- an 18-track retrospective of her work -- followed in November 2005. But Morissette wasn't done, returning in 2008 with her seventh studio effort (and fifth international release), Flavors of Entanglement. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
Morissette was born June 1, 1974 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the daughter of Georgia Mary Ann (née Feuerstein), a teacher of Hungarian descent,[8][9] and Alan Richard Morissette, a French-Canadian high school principal.[10] She has a twin brother Wade Morissette (also a musician) who was born 12 minutes after her.[11] Morissette's parents were devout Catholics. She attended Glebe Collegiate Institute (Ottawa, Canada) for high school.
Music career
1990–92: Early Career
In 1991 MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album with its producer, Leslie Howe. By the time it was released, she had dropped her stage name and was credited simply as Alanis. The dance-pop album went platinum,[12] and its first single, "Too Hot", reached the top twenty on the RPM singles chart. Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top 40. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada;[13] comparisons to Tiffany were also common. During the same period, she was a concert opening act for rapper Vanilla Ice.[14] Morissette was nominated for three 1992 Juno Awards: Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year (which she won), Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording (both for "Too Hot").[15]
In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a ballad-driven record that featured less glitzy production than Alanis and contained more thoughtful lyrics.[13] Morissette wrote the songs with the album's producer, Leslie Howe, and Serge Côté. She said of the album, "people could go, 'Boo, hiss, hiss, this girl's like another Tiffany or whatever.' But the way I look at it ... people will like your next album if it's a suck-ass one."[14] As with Alanis, Now Is the Time was released only in Canada and produced three top 40 singles—"An Emotion Away", the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" and "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time". It was a commercial failure, however, selling only a little more than half the copies of her first album.[13][16] With her two-album deal with MCA Records Canada complete, Morissette was left without a major label contract.
1993–97: Move to Los Angeles and Jagged Little Pill
In 1993 Morissette's publisher MCA Music Publishing introduced her to manager Scott Welch.[17] Welch told HitQuarters he was impressed by her "spectacular voice", her character and her lyrics. At the time she was still living at home with her parents. Together they decided it would be best for her career to move to Toronto and start writing with other people.[17] After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto.[13] Her publisher funded part of her development and when she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he believed in her talent enough to let her use his studio.[13][17] The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records. According to manager Welch every label they had approached had passed on Morissette apart from Maverick.[17]
Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected only to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation changed quickly when KROQ-FM, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single.[18] The song instantly garnered attention for its scathing, explicit lyrics,[13] and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.
After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hit singles helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand In My Pocket" followed, but the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, respectively, kept Jagged Little Pill in the top twenty on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year. According to the RIAA, Jagged Little Pill sold more than 16 million copies in the U.S.; it sold 33 million worldwide,[19] making it the second biggest selling album by a female artist (behind Shania Twain's Come On Over).[20][21] Morissette's popularity grew significantly in Canada, where the album was certified twelve times platinum[12] and produced four RPM chart-toppers: "Hand In My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", and "Head over Feet". The album was also a bestseller in Australia and the United Kingdom.[22][23]
Following the stressful tour, Morissette started practicing Iyengar Yoga for balancing, and after the last December 1996 show, she headed to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two female friends.[31]
1998–2000: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and Alanis Unplugged
Privately, the label hoped to sell a million copies of the album on initial release;[33] instead, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 469,000 copies—a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist.[34] The wordy, personal lyrics on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie alienated many fans, and after the album sold considerably less than Jagged Little Pill, many labelled it an example of the sophomore jinx.[13][35] However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone.[36] In Canada, it won the Juno Award for Best Album and was certified four times platinum.[12][37] "Thank U", the album's only major international hit single, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy.[33][38] Morissette herself directed the videos for "Unsent" and "So Pure", which won, respectively, the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Director and the Juno Award for Video of the Year.[37][39] The "So Pure" video features actor Dash Mihok, with whom Morissette was in a relationship at the time.[33]
Morissette contributed vocals to "Mercy", "Hope", "Innocence", and "Faith", four tracks on Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle, which was released in 1999. The same year, she released the live acoustic album Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It featured tracks from her previous two albums alongside four new songs, including "King of Pain" (a cover of The Police song) and "No Pressure over Cappuccino", which Morissette wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley. The recording of the Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie track "That I Would Be Good", released as a single, became a minor hit on hot adult contemporary radio in America. Also in 1999, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. For her live rendition of "So Pure" at Woodstock '99, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards.[40] During summer 1999, Alanis toured with singer/songwriter Tori Amos on the 5 And A Half Weeks Tour in support of Amos' album To Venus And Back.
2001–03: Under Rug Swept and Feast on Scraps
In 2001, Morissette was featured with Stephanie McKay on the Tricky song "Excess", which is on his album Blowback. Morissette released her fifth studio album, Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her career, she took on the role of sole writer and producer of an album. Her band, comprising Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney, and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments; additional contributions came from Eric Avery, Dean DeLeo, Flea, and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Under Rug Swept debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually going platinum in Canada and selling one million copies in the U.S.[12][41] It produced the hit single "Hands Clean", which topped the Canadian Singles Chart and received substantial radio play; for her work on "Hands Clean" and "So Unsexy", Morissette won a Juno Award for Producer of the Year.[42] A second single, "Precious Illusions", was released, but it did not garner significant success outside Canada or U.S. hot AC radio.
Later in 2002, Morissette released the combination package Feast on Scraps, which includes a DVD of live concert and backstage documentary footage directed by her and a CD containing eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions. Preceded by the single "Simple Together", it sold roughly 70,000 copies in the U.S. and was nominated for a Juno Award for Music DVD of the Year.[41][43]
2004–05: So-Called Chaos, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic and The Collection
Morissette hosted the Juno Awards of 2004 dressed in a bathrobe, which she took off to reveal a flesh-colored bodysuit, a response to the era of censorship in the U.S. caused by Janet Jackson's breast-reveal incident during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.[44] Morissette released her sixth studio album, So-Called Chaos, in May 2004. She wrote the songs on her own again, and co-produced the album with Tim Thorney and pop music producer John Shanks. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 chart to generally mixed critical reviews, and it became Morissette's lowest seller in the U.S.[41] The lead single, "Everything", achieved major success on adult top 40 radio in America and was moderately popular elsewhere, particularly in Canada, although it failed to reach the top 40 on the U.S. Hot 100. Because the first line of the song includes the word asshole, American radio stations refused to play it, and the single version was changed to include the word nightmare instead.[44] Two other singles, "Out Is Through" and "Eight Easy Steps", fared considerably worse commercially than "Everything", although a dance mix of "Eight Easy Steps" was a U.S. club hit.
Morissette embarked on a U.S. summer tour with long-time friends and fellow Canadians Barenaked Ladies, working with the non-profit environmental organization Reverb.[45]
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of Jagged Little Pill, Morissette released a studio acoustic version, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, in June 2005. The album was released exclusively through Starbucks' Hear Music retail concept through their coffee shops for a six-week run. The limited availability led to a dispute between Maverick Records and HMV North America, who retaliated by removing Morissette's other albums from sale for the duration of Starbucks's exclusive six-week sale.[46][47] As of November 2010, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic had sold 372,000 copies in the U.S.,[48] and a video for "Hand in My Pocket" received rotation on VH1 in America. The accompanying tour ran for two months in mid 2005, with Morissette playing small theatre venues. During the same period, Morissette was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.[49]
Morissette released the greatest hits albumAlanis Morissette: The Collection in late 2005. The lead single and only new track, a cover of Seal's "Crazy", was a U.S. adult top 40 and dance hit, but it achieved only minimal chart success elsewhere. A limited edition of The Collection features a DVD including a documentary with videos of two unreleased songs from Morissette's 1996 Can't Not Tour: "King of Intimidation" and "Can't Not". (A reworked version of "Can't Not" had also appeared on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.) The DVD also includes a ninety-second clip of the unreleased video for the single "Joining You". As of November 2010, The Collection had sold 373,000 copies in the U.S., according to Soundscan.[48]
2006–09: Flavors of Entanglement/Leaving Maverick Records
Alanis during a live concert in Barcelona, June 2008
2006 marked the first year in Morissette's musical career without a single concert appearance showcasing her own songs, with the exception of an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in January when she performed "Wunderkind".
On April 1, 2007, Morissette released a tongue-in-cheek cover of The Black Eyed Peas's selection "My Humps", which she recorded in a slow, mournful voice, accompanied only by a piano. The accompanying YouTube-hosted video, in which she dances provocatively with a group of men and hits the ones who attempt to touch her "lady lumps", had received 16,465,653 views on February 15, 2009.[51] Morissette did not take any interviews for a time to explain the song, and it was theorized that she did it as an April Fools' Day joke.[52] Black Eyed Peas vocalist Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson responded by sending Morissette a buttocks-shaped cake with an approving note.[53] On the verge of the release of her latest album, she finally elaborated on how the video came to be, citing that she became very much emotionally loaded while recording her new songs one after the other and one day she wished she could do a simple song like "My Humps" in a conversation with Guy Sigsworth and the joke just took a life of its own when they started working on it.[51]
Morissette's seventh studio album, Flavors of Entanglement, which was produced by Guy Sigsworth, was released in mid 2008. She has stated that in late 2008, she would embark on a North American headlining tour, but in the meantime she would be promoting the album internationally by performing at shows and festivals and making television and radio appearances. The album's first single was "Underneath", a video for which was submitted to the 2007 Elevate Film Festival, the purpose of which festival was to create documentaries, music videos, narratives and shorts regarding subjects to raise the level of human consciousness on the earth.[55] On October 3, 2008, Morissette released the video for her latest single, "Not as We".[56]
Morissette left Maverick Records after all promotion for Flavors was completed.
2010–present: Film and eighth studio album
Recently, Morissette has contributed to 1 Giant Leap, performing "Arrival" with Zap Mama and she has released an acoustic version of her song "Still" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief in support of the 2010 Haiti earthquake crisis. Morissette has also recorded a cover of the 1984 Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias hit, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", re-written as "To All the Boys I've Loved Before".[57] Nelson played rhythm guitar on the recording.[57]
On May 26, 2010, the season finale of American Idol, Morissette performed a duet of her song "You Oughta Know" with Runner Up Crystal Bowersox.[58]
Also in 2010, Morissette's "Thank U" became a critical song in the soundtrack for the Emilio Estevez movie "The Way", which stars Martin Sheen.
On October 11, 2011, Morissette posted a picture of herself in a recording studio to her Facebook page. The picture included the message "back in the studio saddle....the songs have come in droves...!", indicating that Morissette had begun work on her next album. However, it is unknown if she will be still associated with Maverick Records, after the completion of her last album Flavors of Entanglement.[59]
On November 20, 2011, Morissette appeared at the American Music Awards. When asked about the new album during a short interview, she said she had recorded thirty-one songs, and that the album would "likely be out next year, probably [in] summertime".[60]
On December 21, 2011, Alanis performed a duet of "Uninvited" with finalist Josh Krajcik during the performance finale of the X-Factor.
In 1999, Morissette delved into acting again, for the first time since 1993, appearing as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack. Morissette reprised her role as God for a post-credits scene in Smith's next film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, to literally close the book on the View Askewniverse. She also appeared in the hit HBO comedies Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm, appeared in the play The Vagina Monologues, and had a brief role in the Brazilian hit soap opera "Celebridade" (Celebrity).
In late 2003, Morissette appeared in the Off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent. In April 2006, MTV News reported that Morissette would reprise her role in The Exonerated in London from May 23 until May 28.[62]
Morissette has appeared in eight episodes of Weeds, playing Dr. Audra Kitson, a "no-nonsense obstetrician" who treats pregnant main character Nancy Botwin.[63] Her first episode aired in July 2009.
In early 2010 Morissette returned to the stage, performing a one night engagement in An Oak Tree, an experimental play in Los Angeles. The performance was a sell out. In April 2010 Morissette was confirmed in the cast of Weeds season six, performing again her role as Dr. Audra Kitson.[64]
Morissette also starred in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth. Morissette plays Sylvia, an ordinary woman in unexpected remission from lymphoma. Morissette stated that she is "...a big fan of Philip K. Dick's poetic and expansively imaginative books" and that she "feel[s] blessed to portray Sylvia, and to be part of this story being told in film".[65]
Personal life
Morissette dated actor and comedian Dave Coulier for a short time in the early 1990s.[66] In a 2008 interview with the Calgary Herald, Coulier claimed to be the ex-boyfriend who inspired Morissette's song "You Oughta Know".[67] Morissette, however, has maintained her silence on the subject of the song.[68]
Morissette met Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds at Drew Barrymore's birthday party in 2002, and the couple began dating soon after.[69] They announced their engagement in June 2004.[67] In February 2007, representatives for Morissette and Reynolds announced they had mutually decided to end their engagement.[70] Morissette has stated that her album Flavors of Entanglement was created out of her grief after the break-up, saying that "it was cathartic".[71]
On May 22, 2010, Morissette married rapper Mario “MC Souleye” Treadway (born May 3, 1980 in Boston, Massachusetts) in a private ceremony at their Los Angeles home.[72] Their first child, Ever Imre Morissette-Treadway, was born on December 25, 2010.[73]
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